Rana
| full name = Tayū (大夫), first name Rana Kareki (枯木良菜, Kareki Rana) | kanji = 良菜 | romanji = Rana | meaning = "Pleasing, skilled herbs" | race = | birthdate = September 21 | age = Unknown | gender = Female | height = 171 cm (5'7") | weight = 64 kg (140 lbs) | hair color = Blonde | eye color = Cyan | sign = , | bloodtype = AB- | affiliation = The Coven | previous affiliation = | occupation = | previous occupation = Shamaness, medicine woman | team = | previous team = | partner = | previous partner = Hein Ueda (nominal) | position = Sorceress | previous position = | base of operations = (formerly) (formerly) Our Home | education = Unknown | marital status = Single | family = None | shikai = None }} '''Rana' (良菜) is an ancient originally known as Tayū who melded with the Kitsune Izumo centuries before the founding of the . At first, she wandered the as a before she was discovered by the , who convinced her to join the and gave her the name Rana Kareki. While she eventually became a member of the and quickly rose to prominence within the organization, she would later betray the corps for unspecified reasons and return to the Rukongai. Years later, she disguised herself as an old woman and accompanied Hein Ueda to the when the latter became a captain, although her purposes in infiltrating the organization remain unknown. After the death of Shunsui Kyōraku, she once again leaves the in order to join The Coven, where she assumes the role of a ___ due to her mastery of Shikigami and medical Kidō. Appareance Due to the merging of Izumo and the soul Tayū, Rana's true form is highly unusual, and she bears several atypical features. Her Kitsune nature is evident in her pointed ears and elongated cuspids, and she also has extremely pale skin marked with red lines around her nose and eyes. While Rana identifies as a female, she is rather androgynous in appearance, which was also a result of the convergence with the masculine fox spirit. As is seemingly typical for most magic practitioners, she dresses elaborately, painting her fingernails and upper lip pale purple, for example. Rana robes herself in a long green kimono with gold and pink circular patterns running along the hem and seam, fastening the jacket closed with a large, decorative amulet in the shape of a sun. She wears a string of beads around her neck, and keeps a tucked into her wide, crimson and gold silk obi. Completing her attire is a purple scarf, which she uses to tie back her hair, a pair of red earrings, and wooden . The kiseru was actually a gift from Hein Ueda, who is fond of smoking and gave the pipe to Rana as part of the payment for her healing services. Rana put a great deal of care into disguising herself as an old woman, and her cloaking technique was so successful that not even Hein, known for his perceptive abilities, realized that she was anything other than what she presented herself as, albeit he was in mental distress by the time she appeared. As a stooped and withered medicine woman, Rana wore several layers of shabby robes and carried a large medicine case on her back. The only similarity between her appearances was the color of her eyes, which remained cyan blue. In reality, Rana's disguise was a highly elaborate, hollow Shikigami, which she hid within during her short stint within the Seventh Division. Personality History Equipment Potions and Talismans Shikigami Rana is a master of shikigami, and has created several powerful specimens which she can summon at will for use in combat. Aesthetically speaking, her shikigami are distinctive in their uniformity as they typically resemble the same white hue of the paper used to summon them, and most have red markings that mirror their creator herself. Also of note is the fact that all of Rana's shikigami bear names that are related to flowers, which was an integral part of the spell that she used to create and christen them. While each shikigami differs in form and purpose, all are powerful in the fact that they cannot be easily destroyed. Should the form of a particular shikigami be obliterated in combat, their "essence" returns to the original state in which they were sealed, allowing Rana to summon them again. The paper she uses to call out her shikigami also appears to be replaceable, as she can easily recreate the summoning spell so long as paper is available. It is unknown how she discovered the means to detach the shikigami's essence from their summoned form, but it is likely that the true form of the shikigami is stored in an alternate dimension that is only accessible via the intangible spiritual links of the summoning spell. Typically, the limit to a summoner's shikigami is their own reiatsu, as an enormous amount of energy is required to maintain a shikigami once they have been manifested in the physical world. However, along with the ability to detach and store a shikigami's essence in an alternate dimension, Rana also designed her summoning spells with an amplification seal, which proportionately matches the amount of spiritual energy she expends in the summoning ritual to that which is held by the shikigami. For example, should she use a minimal amount of reiatsu in order to call forth a shikigami, the shikigami's ability to persist in the physical world is limited and they will either disappear after a short time or be much easier for an opponent to overcome. However, while in general the more energy she exerts yields a stronger shikigami, the amplification seal allows the shikigami to manifest with more spiritual power than she herself used in the summoning ritual. This is essential for any caster of Shikigami, as it is the means by which a summoner is able to manifest more than one shikigami at a time or maintain their manifestations. Rana has simply taken this ability to even greater heights, as with the smallest amount of energy she is able to summon even her most powerful shikigami, and she has even been known to summon and maintain thousands of small shikigami at the same time, with apparently little effort. However, even Rana has her limits, as she is unable to summon a shikigami that has been destroyed repeatedly within a given timespan, as she must first redraw the matrixes of energy that form the summoning spell in order to call out the shikigami again. She must also be careful when calculating how much energy to use in the amplification seal, as the possibility of over-extending the proportion of extended reiatsu exists. *'Hasuki' (蓮著, lit. "lotus clothing"): One of Rana's most frequently employed shikigami, these small paper summons, created from ambient souls of reishi that were bound together in multiple forms, take the shape of innumerable lotus flowers which appear to be formed out of paper. *'Kōsaimon' (虹彩門, lit. "iris gate"): Kōsaimon was formed from the enslaved soul of an Ōkami that Rana once battled in Yuánrǎng. It is a powerful shikigami, as its powers resemble that of the wolf spirit from which it was created. Ōkami are austere, solemn creatures, and possess the ability to distinguish between good and evil, truth and deception. As such, Rana is able to use Kōsaimon in order to pierce through the clever deceptions, disguises, cloaks, and concealments of her opponents, in a manner similar to . Since her partial Kitsune nature also allows her to do this herself to a certain degree, she mainly uses Kōsaimon as a way to deal with craftiness of her opponents from a distance, such as purging an entire area of hidden traps and spells beforehand. But Kōsaimon itself is also capable of concealment, following the legend that Ōkami are experts at stalking their prey, capable of hiding behind even a blade of grass. Kōsaimon reflects this ability, as despite its massive size it is able to become completely imperceptible to an opponent, hiding within the dimensional folds between physical space or within the smallest, most unassuming objects. Perhaps most fearsome is its ability to hide within the shadow of an opponent, enabling the shikigami to closely follow a given target without being noticed until it is too late. Nonetheless, Kōsaimon is not immune to the perceptive techniques of skilled adversaries, mainly because its immense power is difficult to completely seal off from detection. Kōsaimon also specializes in the use of (結界, lit. barriers), and Rana has designed the shikigami with the ability to cast several Bakudō spells such as and . However, perhaps the most notable characteristic of Kōsaimon is its nature as an escort, as Rana is able to use the shikigami for transport, teleportation, and even as an unseen guardian who serves as a defense in battle. Finally, she can command the shikigami to home in on a given target, and Kōsaimon will doggedly pursue them until the target is exhausted, at which point the shikigami will use its superior strength and size to tear through any attempts at defense and rip the opponent to shreds. *'Rantarō' (蘭太郎, lit. "thick orchid"): Created from the murdered soul of a fellow member of the Kidō Corps whom Rana considered to be a rival, Rantarō is perhaps her strongest Shikigami. Powers and Abilities Quotes Trivia *Izumo's name, while traditionally referring to the name of an old province of Japan, is written with the kanji for "exit," "out of" (出), and "cloud" (雲). The name also refers to , the originator of . *'Tayū' (大夫), Izumo's original name, is a reference to the chanter or singer who would accompany , kabuki, and performances, although the kanji is slightly corrupted (as it should technically read 太夫). Conversely, 大夫 (tayū) is a legendary pine tree granted by the first emperor of China to a loyal dignitary. *Rana's appearance was based off of the Medicine Seller from the anime series .